A wax-polymer compound includes (a) a polymer component that is a polymerized unsaturated monomer, optionally copolymerized with a vinyl-aromatic monomer, and (b) a halogenated hydrocarbon wax component. The polymer component is grafted to the halogenated hydrocarbon wax component, and the wax-polymer compound has a number average molecular weight of about 1,000 to about 100,000, A method of making the wax-polymer compound and a coated silica particle are also disclosed. A rubber composition includes a rubber elastomer comprising a polymerized unsaturated monomer and optionally a polymerized vinyl-aromatic monomer, the elastomer having a number average molecular weight of about 100,000 to about 1,000,000. It further includes a filler in an amount of about 5 to about 200 phr, the filler comprising carbon black, silica, or both; and a wax-polymer additive.

A brush composition usable for phase-separation of a layer containing a block copolymer formed on a substrate, the brush composition including a resin component (A), the resin component (A) containing a polymeric compound (A1) in which a first polymer block and a second polymer block are bonded to each other through a linking group containing a substrate adhering group.

A polymer that includes or consists of polyene mer is grafted to an EPDM, with the former attaching to the latter at the spot where the residual unsaturation of the diene monomer portion of the latter formerly had been located. The resulting macromolecule tends to exhibit smaller EPDM domains, i.e., better dispersion.

An object of the present invention is to provide a high-performance polymer dispersant that can be applied to cellulose being a hydrophilic substance, and another object of the present invention is to provide a technology for practical application of obtaining a cellulose-dispersed resin composition that realizes stable dispersion of cellulose in a simpler manner and in an environmentally conscious manner that never uses a large amount of organic solvents when the polymer dispersant for cellulose is applied to cellulose and disperses the cellulose in a thermoplastic resin. These objects are achieved by providing a polymer dispersant for cellulose, being a polymer compound including a block copolymer structure having a resin-affinitive segment A and a cellulose-adsorptive segment B, the polymer compound synthesized by a reversible chain transfer catalyzed polymerization (RTCP) method not using any of a heavy metal, a nitroxide compound, and a sulfur-based compound, using an organic iodine compound as an initiation compound, and using a phosphorus compound, a nitrogen compound, an oxygen compound, or a carbon compound as a catalyst.

In an aspect, a method of synthesizing a graft copolymer comprises the steps of: copolymerizing a first macromonomer and a first reactive diluent; wherein said first macromonomer comprises a first backbone precursor directly or indirectly covalently linked to a first polymer side chain group; wherein said reactive diluent is provided in the presence of the first macromonomer at an amount selected so as to result in formation said graft copolymer having a first backbone incorporating said diluent and said first macromonomer in a first polymer block characterized by a preselected first graft density or a preselected first graft distribution of said first macromonomer. In some embodiments of this aspect, said preselected first graft density is any value selected from the range of 0.05 to 0.75. In some methods, the composition and amount of said diluent is selected to provide both a first preselected first graft density and a first preselected first graft distribution.

Directed self-assembly (DSA) using block copolymers (BCPs) is emerging as a viable alternative to photolithography for creating features 10 nm and smaller. Block copolymers with balanced surface energy between the polymer blocks, tunable , and tunable glass transition temperatures (T.sub.g) have been formulated. The block copolymers can achieve perpendicular orientation by simple thermal annealing due to the surface energy balance between the polymer blocks, which allows avoiding solvent annealing or top-coat. The value can be tuned up to achieve L.sub.0 as low as 12 nm for lamellar-structured BCPs and hole/pillar size as small as 6 nm for cylinder-structured BCPs. The Tg of the BCPs can also be tuned to lower than those of PS-b-PMMA standards. The enhanced polymer chain mobility resulting from the decreased Tg of the block copolymer may help with improving the kinetics of BCP self-assembly during the thermal annealing.

The present invention relates to an article consisting of or comprising a bidirectional shape-memory polymer (bSMP), the bSMP comprising: first phase-segregated domains (AD) having a first transition temperature (T.sub.t,AD) corresponding to a crystallization transition or glass transition of the first domains (AD), second phase-segregated domains (SD) having a second transition temperature (T.sub.t,SD) corresponding to a crystallization transition or glass transition of the second domains (SD), the second transition temperature (T.sub.t,SD) being higher than the first transition temperature (T.sub.t,AD), and covalent or physical bonds cross-linking the polymer chains of the bSMP, and in this way interconnecting the first and second domains (AD, SD), wherein the second phase-separated domains (SD) form a skeleton which is at least partially embedded in the first phase-segregated domains (AD), and wherein polymer chain segments of the bSMP forming the first domains (AD) are substantially orientated in a common direction, such that the bSMP is able to undergo a reversible shape-shift between a first shape (A) at a first temperature (T.sub.high) and a second shape (B) at a second temperature (T.sub.low) upon variation of temperature between the first and second temperature (T.sub.high, T.sub.low) driven by the crystallization and melting or vitrification and melting of the first phase-separated domains (AD) and without application of an external stress, with T.sub.low<T.sub.t,AD<T.sub.high<T.sub.t,SD.

Shape memory polymers featuring reversible actuation capability under ambient stimulus for integration with apparel. One approach is to use a multiblock polymer consisting of two (or potentially more) blocks in which the one block is the crystalline switching block with relatively low melting transitions, the other block has a higher thermal transition, and the two blocks are linked together by a linker molecule. Another approach is to use a graft copolymer having high and low melting transitions where the graft copolymer has a first polymer serving as the backbone and a second polymer being grafted to or from the backbone at certain graft locations. A further approach is to use latent crosslinking of a semicrystalline polymer with reactive groups placed on the backbone.

A resin composition comprising a thermosetting resin, a functional group-modified copolymer, and an inorganic filler, wherein the functional group-modified copolymer has two or more alkyl (meth)acrylate units, or one or two or more alkyl (meth)acrylate units and an acrylonitrile unit, and at least a part of alkyl ester groups of the alkyl (meth)acrylate units and/or a cyano group of the acrylonitrile unit are/is modified with at least one selected from the group consisting of an epoxy group, a carboxyl group, and an amide group.

The present invention relates to comb block copolymers, combining an elastomeric backbone and rigid pendent blocks and thus having thermoplastic elastomer properties. The invention targets in particular comb block copolymers which may be used as a material as is.

According to the invention, the comb block copolymer is a diene/polypropylene thermoplastic elastomer copolymer, characterized in that it consists of a backbone, said backbone being derived from a diene elastomer, and in that it comprises from 5% to 50% by weight, relative to the total weight of the copolymer, of pendent semicrystalline polypropylene groups distributed along the backbone.

Another subject of the invention is the process for preparing same, and the compositions comprising same.

Finally, a subject of the invention is a tire, one of the constituent elements of which comprises such a composition.